söndag 19 augusti 2012

Two weeks on the road

The first days since leaving Gävle I had great weather and
great roads. From Söderhamn the roads have been a lot flatter and it’s also
easier to find smaller roads and avoid the big rods with a lot of heavy
traffic. But one thing I find about being further south is that it is harder to
find a god camping spot. I guess I have to get used to that when I get out of
Sweden where you don’t have the right to camp in the wild. On Friday I left
Kungsör and headed for Örebro, I was planning not to cycle very far this day
and to take it easy and rest a bit. But everything doesn’t always work out the
way I plan. When leaving Arboga I met a lovely cycling family from Germany.
Mom, dad, two teenagers and a little girl was all on bicycles cycling in Sweden
for vacation. Hopefully I’ll see them again in Germany when I’m passing
through.

When I arrived in Örebro in the afternoon I found a camping
ground that I decided to stay for the night. But it was I very expensive
camping and I had to by a camping card to be able to then pay for a place for
the tent. So I decided to continue on to Kumle where there was supposed to be a
camping ground. But when I had cycled the 20 km to Kumla I only saw a sign
saying that the camping ground was closed for the season for renovating. I then
looked at an information board and read about a little lake a couple of km west
of Kumla. So I continued cycling looking for this lake, and it wasn’t easy to
find. At around seven a found a path leading into the forest and a little sign
about a lake. I followed the path for more than 500m until I came to a little
lake in the middle of a swamp. But I was too tired to continue on that day so I
set up my tent at a place where it was not as wet as the rest of the place. But
I got a good night sleep and was ready for a new day.

The next day the rain started in the morning and it continued
until the afternoon. I cycled along the lake “Vättern” and kept looking for a
place to set up my tent. But this day I didn’t find a place for the tent and I
ended up at a camping ground in Motala. Today I have taken it very slow and
cycled down to the beautiful city Vadstena to see the castle and other fun
things, and then continued to Mjölby where I had a couch waiting for me.